What are printer permissions?

Applies to Windows Vista

Printer permissions determine which printer properties you can manage, such as renaming or sharing a printer, allowing or removing access to the printer, and determining who can manage documents or properties for the printer. Printer permissions are typically managed by the person who installed the printer or, if the printer is connected to a business or enterprise network, by a system administrator.

Permissions can be assigned to each person who uses the printer or to a group of users who have the same type of user account. Members of the administrators group on the computer, for example, have permission to manage printers by default.

Windows offers four types of printer permissions:

Print. By default, each user can print and cancel, pause, or restart documents or files that they send to a printer.

Manage documents. If you have this permission, you can manage all jobs for a printer that are waiting in the print queue, including documents or files that are being printed by other users. For more information, see View the print queue.

Manage printers. This permission allows you to rename, delete, share, and choose preferences for the printer. It also allows you to choose printer permissions for other users and to manage all jobs for the printer. Members of the administrator group for a computer have permission to manage printers by default.

Special permissions. These permissions, typically used only by system administrators, can be used to change the printer owner, if needed. The printer CREATOR OWNER is given all printer permissions and is, by default, the person who installs the printer.